CFP: [American] Melville and His Books, MLA 2009

Modern Language Association ConventionPhiladelphia, 27-30 December 2009Sponsored by the Melville Society

Herman Melville: A Writer and his Books

What Harrison Hayford referred to as the â€œdefiant anomalies of genreâ€ inMelvilleâ€™s major works was largely the result of wide-ranging reading.Sponsored by the Melville society, this panel will examine how Melvilleâ€™sinterest in an author, group of authors, or literary period influenced hisfiction and poetry. How did Melvilleâ€™s engagement with different literaryfigures, movements and traditions (ie, renaissance drama, the picaresqueadventure narrative, epic and dramatic poetry, British and Europeanromanticism) inform his work? What rhetorical strategies emerged from hisefforts to negotiate between literary works that sparked his artisticambitions and literary works that served as models of saleable fiction?To what extent did his reading influence his efforts to make his poetryand fiction topically relevant to the political issues of the day (theallegory of Mardi, the polemics of White-Jacket and Redburn, the satire ofThe Confidence-Man, the reconstructive appeal of Battle-Pieces, etc.)?How did his study of literary criticism, art history and aestheticsinfluence his conception of poetry?